Zazubean Cheeky

The Canadian chocolatier Zazubean makes interesting dark chocolate bars with unique flavours; this one features banana, salted toffee and maca. The cacao content is at 70%, while the cacao beans come from Dominican Republic and Ecuador. The ingredient listing is good, cocoa mass, cane sugar, toffee (cane sugar and whole milk powder), cocoa butter, bananas, sea salt, maca and vanilla. Most of the ingredients are Organic, while many of them are FairTrade. The bar is made in Switzerland. The tagline is "Be the Sassy Monkey".

How does it taste? The chocolate is good tasting, and melts well in the mouth. I don't get the banana at all, and the maca, if anything, has an underlying taste that might come from the chocolate, I can't tell. The salted toffee is very crunchy, I mean very crunchy, a little disconcerting. Overall, I would say that this is a good bar, not really that "Sassy", but not one I would buy again.

Kayer All Natural Xylitol Gum - Citrus

I've enjoyed most of the aspartame free gums sweetened with xylitol that I've tried. This one tastes pretty good; the citrus flavour is good. The gum is a little "chewy", ie. it takes more effort than others I've chewed. I've only seen it in one store.

Mum's Original Banana Powder

Mum's Original has a whole line of raw superfoods. This one features bananas from Ecuador, grown and ripened in the full sun, then dehydrated at a low temperature. They are then finely milled to create a banana powder that you can add to desserts, shakes and breakfast dishes. This has a very banana-y flavour, very good if you love bananas. One 200 g package costs between 9 and 10 dollars.

Red Velvet Apricots

We found these in a Middle-Eastern shop. They're at least interesting for their red colour, different than the orange of apricots I'm used to. I wouldn't say that they reminded me of velvet, the skin was smooth, but they are a good eating apricot, save for the higher price.

Two Herbal Thai Rices

These two rices we found for sale in a Thai Supermarket. The one is a sticky rice, flavoured with a favourite of mine, roselle (hibiscus). The other is a Jasmine rice flavoured with pandan leaf, a favourite of Thais, which imparts a good flavour and green colour to many desserts. Both of these did not really have strong flavours from what they were infused with, and the rice was not of high quality. More of an interesting experience than one I would seek to repeat.

Nestle Sublime

My colleague brought this back from Peru the other week, it's a favourite in Peru. It's essentially a chocolate bar with peanuts, and fairly good tasting if the chocolate is a little sweet, somewhat offset by the saltiness of the peanuts. Interesting, but not and no way my favourite.

Ananda Chocolate - Chocobane!

Ananda Chocolate is a Dutch chocolatier; they make chocolate locally, in this case from Ecuadorean cacao beans. The cacao content of this bar is 70%. The ingredient listing is good, cacao beans, dried banana puree, cacao nibs and non-gmo lecithin. All ingredients save the lecithin are Organic.

How does it taste? Horrid. OK, perhaps not so harsh a word, I tried by eating the whole bar, but this bar does not taste good at all to me. I can't taste the banana puree, or at least it does not taste like banana and chocolate together tastes (it should taste great!), rather there is a bitterness to this that is off-putting, not good bitter, like dark chocolate should be. The chocolate doesn't melt well and tastes chalky. The cacao nibs are also lost or non-existent in flavour. I like that they use Organic and non-GMO ingredients, and that the bar is wrapped in a biodegradable package rather than the regular foil. I just can't see me wanting to ever buy let alone eat this bar again.

Pacari Los Rios

The Ecuadoran chocolatier Pacari Chocolate makes wonderfully tasting chocolate bars using cacao beans from Ecuador; I've come to see that these beans make for an excellent chocolate bar. This one features beans from the Los Rios region in central est Ecuador. Pacari is an artisanal chocolate maker, they craft their chocolate in small batches using the finest ingredients. The ingredient listing looks good, cacao beans, evaporated cane juice and sunflower lecithin. The cacao content is at 72%.

How does it taste? As with all the bars that I've tasted from Pacari, this one makes for an excellent chocolate experience; the chocolate is smooth and melts well in the mouth, smells good and snaps well. Despite the high price for this what I call half-size bar, I would definitely buy this bar again.

Wild Garlic Greens

We came across this in a Korean supermarket; they told us that we could eat it raw in salads. I assume that you could also stir fry them, which we ended up doing. Don't really have any recipe for them, but they do taste interesting at least, not a strong garlic flavour. We're going to look for them again next year.

Taza Chocolate Chipotle Chili

The American chocolatier Taza Chocolate makes Mexican-style chocolate using Oaxacan stone mills. This one features chipotle chili powder; chipotles are smoke-dried jalapeno peppers from Mexico. The ingredient listing is good, organic cacao beans, organic cane sugar and organic chipotle chili powder. The cacao content is at 70%.

How does it taste? Whereas the Guajillo Chili didn't have much heat, this one packs a greater punch. Mixed with the smokiness and the bitterness of the chocolate, this bar makes for an interesting flavour. There is still the underlying crunchiness of the sugar, less so than bars with less cacao content I've tasted. Overall, I would say this is one of the more flavourful bars from Taza, and one I would eat again.